An extremely dangerous situation is created if a ski is released from a boot. The free ski can go sliding down the ski slope, gathering considerable velocity and, if it hits someone, can produce serious injury. As a rule safety straps connect the skiboot of the skier to the ski binding, so that even if the skiboot is released from the binding a connection is maintained with the ski. Such a safety strap, however, is itself frequently pulled loose in a bad fall.
To this end so-called ski brakes have been developed which generally and most basically comprise a brake element, usually formed as a shovel, and means for swinging the brake element into an actuated position extending transverse to the ski and down beyond the lower face of the ski. Actuation of such a brake is automatic on displacement of the skiboot away from the ski so that the ski itself is automatically stopped, or at least prevented from moving at any appreciable rate of speed. This automatic actuation arrangement usually comprises at least one spring that is loaded as the skiboot is pressed down on the upper face of the ski.
In a typical arrangement the brake elements, formed as small shovels, are pivotal about an axle perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the ski and spaced above the upper face of the ski behind the skiboot. A torsion spring wound around this axle loads the elements and a catch is provided for actuation as the boot is lifted off the ski to release the spring and cause the brake elements to pivot down from their position parallel to the ski into a position perpendicular to the ski and projecting below the lower face thereof.
A ski brake is also known which has a pair of leaf springs screwed to the ski toward the front and so constructed that their rear end portions normally stand up. The lateral edges are extended as shovel-like brake elements which project downwardly toward the ground when the spring is unstressed. When a skiboot is secured on top of these elements the brake elements are lifted and lie parallel to the edge of the ski. Such an arrangement has the significant disadvantage that these elements extending from the sides of the skis can become caught and cause injury to the skier or can catch on some object and become bent out of shape.
Most of these prior-art ski brakes not only have relatively complicated actuating mechanisms, but present the difficulty of often burdensome structure on the top face of the skis. Not only does this make donning the skis more difficult, but it considerably augments the cost of the skis. Furthermore this extra structure is failure prone in that if it catches on something like a root or the like it is damaged. Such complicated ski brakes are also known to ice up and become completely inoperative.
In my above-cited prior application I disclose a ski brake having support means secured to the ski and defining a pivot axis extending parallel to the upper face of the ski and at an acute angle to the longitudinal direction of the ski. A resiliently deformable wire has a pivot portion pivotal in the support means about this pivot axis and an actuation portion extending from and at an angle to the pivot portion and engageable by the skiboot to pivot the wire about its pivot portion. A brake element is carried on the wire and extends generally parallel to the actuation portion with this brake element therefore displaceable between an actuated position extending transverse to the upper face of the ski and beyond the lower face of the ski and an ineffective position extending generally parallel to the ski.
In accordance with this earlier invention the wire is at least partially U-shaped and has a pair of generally parallel legs constituting the actuation portion, each leg being provided with a respective such pivot portion rotatable about a respective pivot axis in the support means plate constituting the means secured to the ski. The wire carries a pair of such brake elements which are generally parallel to each other and lie on opposite sides of the ski, extending forwardly from the respective pivot portions and extending generally in the opposite direction from the ends of the legs.
My earlier application further disclosed the idea of forming the wire with the pivot portions extending generally toward one another. In this case the brake elements are carried on and extended generally in line with the legs.
The pivot portions in the system of my earlier application extend generally away from each other and have inner ends from which extend the legs' outer ends from which generally parallel end portions of the wire extend generally parallel to the actuation portions. The brake elements are carried on these end portions. Means is provided for displacing the pivot axes on displacement of the actuation portions from the actuated position to the ineffective position so as to decrease the angle they form with each other and thereby displace the brake elements toward each other. Thus as a skiboot comes down on the actuation portion of the arrangement it not only swings the brake up so that the elements lie parallel to the ski, but also pivots these elements inwardly so as to move them completely out of the way.
This is effected according to my earlier application by connecting the bight portion between the legs to a toggle having one end fixed relative to the ski and another end secured to the bight portion so that depression of the toggle toward the upper face of the ski pushes the bight portion back away from the pivot axes. The wire is generally planar in its actuated position and is stressed in its ineffective position. Thus the pivot portions extend at an angle to the plane of the wire in the actuated position in which the wire is substantially unstressed.
In accordance with yet another feature of my earlier application each brake element includes a back portion extending in line with the brake element back past the respective pivot portion. These back portions are engageable by a skiboot to displace the brake into its ineffective position.